HONOLULU - Dr. Janet Ishikawa-Fullmer, Professor of Education and clinical psychologist, recently received the Distinguished Pi Lambda Theta (PLT) Award at the Biennial Council and Leadership Conference in Richmond, Virginia. It is the highest honor that the PLT, an internationally recognized Honor Society in Education, bestows to a member. The PLT commended Ishikawa-Fullmer for her outstanding contribution, dedication, and commitment to education, both internationally and locally.

Ishikawa-Fullmer entered the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1944, earning four degrees from the College of Education. After receiving her doctorate in educational psychology in 1976, she began practicing clinical psychology in Honolulu. She held positions as faculty, department head, and dean in two of Hawaiʻi‘s community colleges, and served as a professor at Grambling State University and UH Mānoa.

The UH College of Education named Ishikawa-Fullmer as a Distinguished Benefactor in 2004 and a Distinguished Alumnus in 2005. She and her husband, Dr. Daniel W. Fullmer, retired from UH in 1995. Together, they have established scholarships at UH Mānoa, Western Illinois University, Grambling State University, and the University of Denver, as well as at Honohina and Honomu Hongwanji Church and Kilohana United Methodist Church.

"We are very much interested in education," Ishikawa-Fullmer said. "It makes a difference in people‘s lives, so we have created these scholarships to encourage people to go to school." Today, they continue to work in their private practice, specializing in family therapy.

For more information about the UH Mānoa College of Education, visit www.hawaii.edu/coe/.